"Brazen Attack Ad," Using Wolves, "Approved by the President"
--10/25/2004

1."Brazen Attack Ad," Using Wolves, "Approved by the President"
Bush's scary new "wolves" attack ad. With "Attack Ad" on screen below a shot of President Bush, delivering a campaign speech, and an elephant graphic representative of the GOP, ABC anchor Peter Jennings on Friday night made it seem as if he'd caught Bush committing a misdeed: "The Republican television ad, approved by the President, that uses the wolves to attack the Democrats." Jennings soon maintained that "the presidential campaign out there got positively primal today." ABC reporter Terry Moran noted that "some advertising experts were impressed" with the ad and he asserted that "while it's true Kerry proposed intelligence cuts in the 1990s," as the ad claimed, "senior congressional Republicans did, too." But Moran, to his credit, pointed out that "Kerry's proposed cuts were larger and across-the-board." NBC's David Gregory called the Bush campaign's ad "its most brazen attack ad yet."

2.CBS: "Most Americans Are Worse Off" After Fours Years of Bush
CBS News: Most Americans "worse off" (by $30.00!) after nearly four years of the Bush presidency. President Bush, Dan Rather relayed Friday night, "insists the economy is good and getting better." But while reporter Anthony Mason's "Reality Check" allowed that the jobs picture is improving, he echoed John Kerry in treating as most relevant that "one-quarter of the tax cuts in effect this year go to the richest one percent, those with incomes over $290,000." Mason then asked: "So is the average American better off now than he or she was four years ago? Well, this is where it gets a bit tricky. On average, Americans have more money. But most Americans are, in fact, worse off." Mason's proof: "Median household income, the number smack in the middle of all Americans, is now $41,550, $30 lower than it was four years ago." What's tricky is how CBS News obtained 2004 data when just in late August the Census Bureau released the 2003 numbers.

3.Rather: Cheney Doesn't Think It's Fair, But I'll Do it Anyway
Dan Rather: Dick Cheney doesn't think it's fair, but I'll do it anyway. In a short CBS Evening News item Friday night about how Halliburton will be allowed to keep disputed payments for services in Iraq, Rather found it necessary to tell viewers that "Vice President Dick Cheney is the former chief executive to Halliburton and still gets a pension and other benefits." Rather then acknowledged: "Republicans generally believe that it's unfair to point that out in the present context."

4.GMA &
Today Trumpet Dana Reeve's "Star Power" Kerry Endorsement
ABC and NBC on Friday morning championed Dana Reeve's endorsement of John Kerry by playing lengthy excerpts from her tribute to him and her late husband, Chris. With "Star Power" on screen under a shot of Kerry with Reeve, ABC's Diane Sawyer trumpeted at the top of Good Morning America: "This morning, a new voice. Christopher Reeve's wife speaking out for the first time since her husband's death and coming out strong for John Kerry." Over on Today, NBC's Katie Couric asserted that "Kerry has picked up a key endorsement from Dana Reeve" who told "the nation it needs a President who supports embryonic stem cell research." NBC featured Reeve's concluding words at the Thursday event in Ohio: "Today is the right moment to transform our grief into hope. Chris is the beacon guiding me. So I am here today to honor my husband as I proudly introduce our friend and declare my vote for the next President of the United states, John Kerry."

5.Kerry Copies CBS and Describes Bush as Beholden to "Far-Right"
CBS News serving as John Kerry's speechwriter? On Monday's CBS Evening News, though John Kerry did not use the phrase "far-right," CBS reporter Jim Axelrod maintained from Florida that "Kerry's strategy for the next two weeks is to raise the specter of a second Bush term driven by far-right ideology in which regular folks lose." Three days later, however, Kerry picked up on the verbiage suggested by CBS and asserted at his Thursday event in Ohio with Dana Reeve: "George Bush is so beholden to the far-right ideologues that he has blocked the true promise of stem cell research."

6.Kurtz Calls Sinclair Program Slanted, But
NY Times Saw Balance
As one of the 76 percent of Americans without access to a Sinclair Broadcast Group television station, I did not see their Friday night special which generated so much sudden concern for media bias, "A P.O.W. Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media." But I can provide a round-up of how some reporters assessed it in Saturday newspapers. The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz found it quite slanted against John Kerry as he complained that "the opening minutes made Kerry out to be a traitor, and the way the issues were framed -- with only a few minutes devoted to President Bush's military service -- put the Kerry side squarely on the defensive." But in the New York Times, Bill Carter and Scott Shane saw a "measured" presentation in which "Sinclair's producers seemed to go out of their way to create a balanced political collage." In Sinclair's hometown Baltimore Sun, David Zurawik wondered what all the fuss was about since "there was nothing in the program as aired last night worth all the pyrotechnics that proceeded it the last two weeks."

Bush's scary new "wolves" attack ad. With "Attack Ad" on screen below a shot of President Bush, delivering a campaign speech, and an elephant graphic representative of the GOP, ABC anchor Peter Jennings on Friday night made it seem as if he'd caught Bush committing a misdeed: "The Republican television ad, approved by the President, that uses the wolves to attack the Democrats." Jennings soon maintained that "the presidential campaign out there got positively primal today." ABC reporter Terry Moran noted that "some advertising experts were impressed" with the ad and he asserted that "while it's true Kerry proposed intelligence cuts in the 1990s," as the ad claimed, "senior congressional Republicans did, too." But Moran, to his credit, pointed out that "Kerry's proposed cuts were larger and across-the-board."

(That contrasts with how CBS's John Roberts on Tuesday night tried to undermine the Bush campaign's case: "When the President hammers John Kerry's votes to cut intelligence budgets in the early '90s, he doesn't mention that Republicans were doing the same thing." See: www.mediaresearch.org )

Back to Friday night, on the NBC Nightly News, David Gregory described as "brazen" the new Bush-Cheney ad which uses video of wolves to symbolize the lurking danger of terrorism: "In it's latest appeal to so-called 'security moms,' today the Bush campaign released its most brazen attack ad yet on Senator Kerry, with wolves as the terrorists who would be emboldened by Kerry as President."

Jennings, back in Manhattan, teased at the top of his October 22 broadcast, over a shot of Bush on left with the GOP elephant on the right over the words "Attack Ad" followed by Bush next to a shot of a group of wolves in the ad: "On World News Tonight, the Republican television ad, approved by the President, that uses the wolves to attack the Democrats. Senator Kerry says today that women all over America are vulnerable and the White House is not listening to them."

Jennings led the newscast, as taken down by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth: "Good evening, everyone. Back at home base after touring some of the battleground states, the presidential campaign out there got positively primal today. In both campaigns, you can feel the temperature rising. The Kerry campaign is hammering the theme that Mr. Bush is out of touch with women, and the Bush campaign is pounding security everywhere you look and listen. Let's go first to Terry Moran, who is with Mr. Bush. Terry?"

Moran checked in from somewhere in Pennsylvania: "Peter, the Bush campaign strategy in these final days is simple: They want a majority of voters to go to the polls on Election Day believing that the security of the country is the most important issue. Back in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, there for the second time in just over two weeks, Mr. Bush told a packed stadium that the election boiled down to five clear choices -- from taxes to education to family values, but one overriding priority." George W. Bush: "All progress on every other issue depends on the safety of our citizens." Clip of Bush ad: "In an increasingly dangerous world-" Moran: "Today, that tough and unconventional new ad released by the Bush campaign made the same argument. It's called 'Wolves.'" Clip of Bush ad showing wolves in the woods: "Even after the first terrorist attack on America, John Kerry and the liberals in Congress voted to slash America's intelligence operations. Weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm." Moran: "Some advertising experts were impressed." Bob Garfield, advertising analyst: "Looks like a Halloween slasher flick. It's really spooky. It's really well done. I'm really afraid, and that's exactly what they're after." Moran: "'Wolves' is one of the final two ads the Bush campaign plans before Election Day. It will run in 14 states. Campaign aides say it was made months ago, tested well before focus groups, and harkens back to one of the most effective ads of President Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign -- a Cold War warning about the Russian bear." Clip of Reagan ad which showed video of a bear: "There is a bear in the woods. For some people, the bear is easy to see. Others don't see it at all." Moran: "As for the Bush ad's claims, while it's true Kerry proposed intelligence cuts in the 1990s, senior congressional Republicans did, too. But Kerry's proposed cuts were larger and across-the-board. Angry Democrats decried the President's tactics." John Edwards: "This President is continuing to try to scare America in his speeches and ads in a despicable and contemptible way. The American people are smarter than they think. They're gonna see through all this."

The text of the audio in the Bush campaign's "wolves" ad: "In an increasingly dangerous world. Even after the first terrorist attack on America. John Kerry and the liberals in Congress voted to slash America's intelligence operations. By six billion dollars. Cuts so deep they would have weakened America's defenses. And weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm."

The DNC on Friday released a TV ad which used an eagle to represent Kerry and an ostrich to stand in for Bush, but while FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume played that ad in addition to the Bush "wolves" ad, the broadcast networks did not on Friday night.

The script of that ad, with video jumping back and forth between a soaring eagle and an ostrich with its head in the ground: "The eagle soars high above the earth. The ostrich buries its head in the sand. The eagle can see everything for miles around. The ostrich? Can't see at all. The eagle knows when it's time to change course. The ostrich stands in one place. Given the choice, in these challenging times, shouldn't we be the eagle again?"

CBS News: Most Americans "worse off" (by $30.00!) after nearly four years of the Bush presidency. President Bush, Dan Rather relayed Friday night, "insists the economy is good and getting better." But while reporter Anthony Mason's "Reality Check" allowed that the jobs picture is improving, he echoed John Kerry in treating as most relevant that "one-quarter of the tax cuts in effect this year go to the richest one percent, those with incomes over $290,000." Mason then asked: "So is the average American better off now than he or she was four years ago? Well, this is where it gets a bit tricky. On average, Americans have more money. But most Americans are, in fact, worse off." Mason's proof: "Median household income, the number smack in the middle of all Americans, is now $41,550, $30 lower than it was four years ago."

On screen:
Median Household Income
2000: $41,580
2004: $41,550

Mason made no mention of the impact on the economy of September 11.

What's tricky is how CBS News obtained 2004 data when just in late August the Census Bureau released the 2003 numbers and 2004 data won't be available until next year. An August 26 press release from the Census Bureau reported that "real median household income remained unchanged between 2002 and 2003 at $43,318." That's nearly $2,000 higher that CBS's number. For the Census Bureau's release on its statistics for 2003, see: www.census.gov

More on other income data below following the transcript of the CBS story.

It's ironic that CBS on Friday night treated a $30 change in income as significant when the same network criticized the original Bush tax cut proposal for only providing a $900 tax cut to lower income people. On the March 8, 2001 CBS Evening News, for example, Bob Schieffer lamented: "For a single parent with one child earning $22,000 a year, that translates into a savings of $932 once the full cut is phased in. A two-earner couple with two children earning $55,000 will realize a $1,900 a year tax cut. The same size family earning $90,000 would see a cut of more than $2,700. And if that family's earnings rose to $400,000, their tax cut would total more than $13,000 yearly."

For more examples, see the MRC's 2001 Special Report by Rich Noyes, "Liberal Spin Prevails: How CBS Led the Networks' Charge Against the Bush Tax Cut," at: www.mediaresearch.org

As for who really pays most of the taxes and should get most of the tax cuts, as CBS's Mika Brzezinski amazingly noted in an October 6 CBS Evening News story about a woman who inherited her wealth and wants the wealthy to pay more in taxes: "According to the Congressional Budget Office, households in the top 20 percent of income earning an average of about $204,000, pay more than 80 percent of all income taxes. That's why others say it's no surprise that they receive two-thirds of the tax cuts."

Rather set up the October 22 CBS Evening News hit on the Bush administration: "Stocks closed sharply lower today. The Dow lost 108 points. When President Bush took office, the Dow was more than 900 points higher. Inflation was about the same as it is now. Unemployment was about a point lower. And mortgage rates were more than a point higher. President Bush insists the economy is good and getting better. So how is, on the facts, the economy doing? CBS's Anthony Mason gives you a 'Reality Check.'"

Mason began: "To hear the candidates tell it, it's a tale of two very different economies." George W. Bush: "We've created 1.9 million new jobs in the last 13 months."
John Kerry: "He can't come here and tell you I've created all these jobs because he's lost 1.6 million jobs." Mason: "So who's right? They both are. The recovering economy has started creating jobs again. But since the President took office, we've lost 1.6 million private sector jobs. However, if you include government hiring, the overall loss during the President's term is about 800,000 jobs." Bush: "Real after-tax income, the money you keep in your pocket, is up more than ten percent." Mason: "President Bush says his tax cuts have made Americans wealthy. But Senator Kerry says most of those tax cuts have gone to the wealthy." Kerry: "The highest one percent of income earners in America got $89 billion of tax cut last year." Mason: "He's not wrong. One-quarter of the tax cuts in effect this year go to the richest one percent, those with incomes over $290,000 [video of people looking at a jewelry store window display, with this text on screen: "2004 Tax Cuts: 25% to incomes over $290,000"]. So is the average American better off now than he or she was four years ago? Well, this is where it gets a bit tricky. On average, Americans have more money. But most Americans are, in fact, worse off. Now, how can that be? Because average income includes the very rich." Mark Zandi, Economy.com: "Very wealthy high-income households in this country have done extraordinarily well over the last several years, and that means that the average income, the average net worth, has risen much more than the median." Mason: "In fact, the median household income, the number smack in the middle of all Americans, is now $41,550, $30 lower than it was four years ago."

On screen:
Median Household Income
2000: $41,580
2004: $41,550

Zandi: "By that measure, at best, we're holding our own. Arguably, we're not quite where we were when the President took office." Mason concluded: "The candidates are telling different stories because how you read this economy depends on how you read the numbers. Anthony Mason, CBS News, New York."

But CBS reads the numbers the same way as John Kerry.

The Economy.com offers no information or clue about where CBS got its numbers, so I went looking elsewhere. In "Scorecard on the Economy: A Guide for Policymakers," the Heritage Foundation's Tim Kane, Ph.D., Andrew Grossman, Rea S. Hederman, Jr., and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., provided a different set of income numbers: "Real Earnings and Income. Worker pay is a sign of job quality. The Labor Department's measure of real hourly earnings is one of many pay statistics and includes all monetary compensation. However, it excludes benefits and, unlike other measures, only counts earnings for non-executive workers. "- During the 1980 and 1990 recessions, real hourly earnings declined. "- However, during and after the 2001 recession, real earnings increased-by 2 percent since the recession began in March 2001. "- Real earnings are higher now than they were at the height of the dot-com boom in 2000. "- Personal income is also growing. In the second quarter of 2004, personal income increased more quickly than during any other quarter of the past three years."

Dan Rather: Dick Cheney doesn't think it's fair, but I'll do it anyway. In a short CBS Evening News item Friday night about how Halliburton will be allowed to keep disputed payments for services in Iraq, Rather found it necessary to tell viewers that "Vice President Dick Cheney is the former chief executive to Halliburton and still gets a pension and other benefits." Rather then acknowledged: "Republicans generally believe that it's unfair to point that out in the present context."

The MRC's Brad Wilmouth caught this October 22 item which followed a story by David Martin on women in combat: "Also tonight, correspondent Martin reports the Pentagon may let a unit of the Halliburton corporation keep at least a portion of $2 billion in disputed payments for services in Iraq. The Defense Department will not require supporting documentation for the services because, the Defense Department says, they were performed under wartime conditions. Instead, they will settle on an estimate of the cost. Vice President Dick Cheney is the former chief executive to Halliburton and still gets a pension and other benefits. Republicans generally believe that it's unfair to point that out in the present context."

ABC and NBC on Friday morning championed Dana Reeve's endorsement of John Kerry by playing lengthy excerpts from her tribute to him and her late husband, Chris. With "Star Power" on screen under a shot of Kerry with Reeve, ABC's Diane Sawyer trumpeted at the top of Good Morning America: "This morning, a new voice. Christopher Reeve's wife speaking out for the first time since her husband's death and coming out strong for John Kerry." Over on Today, NBC's Katie Couric asserted that "Kerry has picked up a key endorsement from Dana Reeve" who "spoke out just a week and a half after her husband's death, telling the nation it needs a President who supports embryonic stem cell research."

The October 22 Today featured Reeve's concluding words at the Thursday event in Ohio: "Today is the right moment to transform our grief into hope. Chris is the beacon guiding me. So I am here today to honor my husband as I proudly introduce our friend and declare my vote for the next President of the United states, John Kerry."

The MRC's regular watchers of GMA and Today, Jessica Anderson and Geoff Dickens, cannot recall either show ever running such excerpts from anyone endorsing President Bush.

Following the opening tease quoted above and the 7am news update, Diane Sawyer set up excerpts from Reeve: "We want to talk about Christopher Reeve's wife, Dana, emerging to make her first public appearance, and it was for John Kerry. She's hoping to drive stem cell research to the front of the public debate. It is her first appearance, as we said, since her husband's death 12 days ago and she appeared in the battleground state of Ohio. She said her husband had been on a crusade for the research and that the world had lost a beacon of hope."

The MRC's Jessica Anderson clocked the Dana Reeve excerpt at about a minute and twenty seconds, ending with: "He imagined living in a world where politics would never get in the way of hope." Sawyer followed up: "Again, Dana Reeve speaking out for John Kerry. Let's go to George Stephanopoulos this morning, because he says yesterday Kerry had very specific plans in mind and he executed them. George." George Stephanopoulos: "That's exactly right, Diane. Every single event from here on out has a very specific target. The target of that Dana Reeve event yesterday, suburban married women. As Dan Harris suggested, John Kerry hasn't been doing as well with these women as he wants to do. He needs to build up his lead among these women if he's going to win, so that's what that event was all about and it was a very, very powerful moment...." Sawyer: "As we said, it was so moving to hear Dana Reeve speak..."

On NBC's Today, Katie Couric introduced a longer excerpt: "President Bush's opponent, Senator John Kerry has picked up a key endorsement from Dana Reeve, actor Christopher Reeve's widow. She spoke out just a week and a half after her husband's death telling the nation it needs a President who supports embryonic stem cell research."

The MRC's Ken Shepherd took down parts of what NBC aired from Reeve, an excerpt that lasted nearly two-and-a-half minutes: "Eleven days ago, Chris died, and when he died, a light went out in my life. And when Chris died, the world lost a truly inspirational leader. I lost my best friend. My inclination would be frankly to remain private for a good long while, but I came here today in support of John Kerry because this is so important. Almost a decade ago, Chris made a decision. He made a brave, selfless decision to choose life and to fight for every single day." Christopher Reeve from 1996 Democratic Convention: "America does not let its needy citizens fend for themselves." Dana Reeve: "His vision of walking again, his belief that he would reach this goal for himself and others in his life time was central to the way he conducted his life.... "Chris was a vocal proponent of embryonic stem cell research. He joined the majority of Americans. He joined the majority of Americans in believing that the promise of embryonic stem cell research is the key to unlock life-saving treatments and cures.... "There are currently researchers working across the country transplanting embryonic stem cells into rats. The rats, once paralyzed, are now walking. And I'll share with you something Chris used to say. He was very fond of saying, 'Oh to be a rat!' He knew human studies were a long way from these animal studies, but they gave him and thousands more real, genuine hope. Today is the right moment to transform our grief into hope. Chris is the beacon guiding me. So I am here today to honor my husband. As I proudly introduce our friend and declare my vote for the next President of the United states, John Kerry.

None of the Friday morning shows, or Thursday night broadcast network evening newscasts, pointed out what President Bush has done to advance embryonic stem cell research. But the MRC's Megan McCormack noticed that FNC's Carl Cameron did do so on the October 21 Special Report with Brit Hume: "In the battleground state of Ohio, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry unleashed his most caustic attack yet on the president as a closed minded ideologue who's thwarted scientific advancement and opposed embryonic stem cell research." John Kerry: "He has an extreme ideological agenda that slows, instead of advances, science." Cameron: "President Bush has increased federal research and development funds by 44 percent, including for the National Institutes of Health, nano technology, and the National Science Foundation. He approved the first ever, albeit limited, federal funds for research on embryonic stem cell lines created before August 9th of 2001. But he banned further federal funding on new stem cell lines created since. Research on adult stem cell lines was not affected, and private funding on embryonic stem cell lines continues. Kerry was joined by Dana Reeve, whose late husband, actor and quadriplegic Christopher Reeve, supported unlimited stem cell research. With dripping disdain, Kerry accused the President of choking off scientific advancement." Kerry: "But if George Bush had been President during other periods of American history, he would have sided with the candle lobby against electricity. He would have been with the buggy makers against the cars, and the typewriter companies against the computers."

CBS News serving as John Kerry's speechwriter? On Monday's CBS Evening News, though John Kerry did not use the phrase "far-right," CBS reporter Jim Axelrod maintained from Florida that "Kerry's strategy for the next two weeks is to raise the specter of a second Bush term driven by far-right ideology in which regular folks lose." Three days later, however, Kerry picked up on the verbiage suggested by CBS and asserted at his Thursday event in Ohio with Dana Reeve: "George Bush is so beholden to the far-right ideologues that he has blocked the true promise of stem cell research."

A Nexis search for the term "far-right" did not turn up any uses of it by John Kerry on Monday, October 18, or in the couple of days before or after, but it did locate numerous articles quoting him using the term on Thursday, October 21.

For the October 19 CyberAlert item, "CBS Gratuitously Portrays Bush as Driven by 'Far-Right Ideology,'" about the October 18 CBS Evening News, see: www.mediaresearch.org

On Friday's Early Show, the MRC's Brian Boyd noticed, reporter Byron Pitts featured the "far-right" line from Kerry the day before. Pitts reported: "The Senator began the day hunting for geese, but then it was back to hunting for votes with a speech on science and technology." Kerry at Columbus, Ohio event after being introduced by Dana Reeve (see item #4 above): "George Bush is so beholden to the far-right ideologues that he has blocked the true promise of stem cell research." Pitts: "Senator Kerry slammed the President for his 2001 decision to severely limit federal funding for embryonic stem cell research." Kerry: "It's wrong to take hope away from people. When I'm president, we will change this policy and we will lead the world in stem cell research." Pitts: "A day after campaigning with 9/11 widow Kristen Breitweiser, Kerry was joined by Dana Reeve, the wife of the late actor and stem cell research advocate Christopher Reeve." Dana Reeve: "Today as an advocate and also as a wife, mother and care-giver, I stand here with John Kerry to do my part to help advance this country's commitment to medical research." Pitts: "They were Mrs. Reeve's first public remarks about her husband's death since he passed away nearly two weeks ago. She decided the time was right." Reeve: "Although our family feels Chris's loss so keenly right now, today is the right moment to transform our grief into hope." Pitts concluded: "From Wisconsin it's onto Nevada and Colorado, and then the all important battleground state of Florida. Monday, Kerry will campaign with former President Clinton."

As one of the 76 percent of Americans without access to a Sinclair Broadcast Group television station, I did not see their Friday night special which generated so much sudden concern for media bias, "A P.O.W. Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media," an hour-long program originally publicized as a look, based on an anti-Kerry film, at Vietnam POWs angry at John Kerry for smearing them as war criminals. But I can provide a round up of how some reporters assessed it in Saturday newspapers.

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz found it quite slanted against Kerry. He began his October 23 article: "Sinclair Broadcast Group last night aired a program that sharply criticized John Kerry over Vietnam, with the anchor declaring: 'Some people are trying to suppress the right to free speech.' After two weeks of accusations of partisan bias, the hour-long special led off with Carlton Sherwood, who produced the anti-Kerry film 'Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal,' saying: 'What is John Kerry's campaign afraid of?'" "One of the former Vietnam prisoners of war featured in the film, Jim Warner, was shown near the top of the show assailing Kerry for his 1971 Senate testimony charging U.S. atrocities in the war. 'He was saying things that he knew were false, knew would harm us. That means he abandoned his comrades,' Warner said. "Anchor Jeff Barnd appeared to adopt the film's central thesis by saying of Kerry: 'His words would have a profound effect on our prisoners of war.' "While a good portion of the Baltimore-based company's show, 'A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media,' offered some balance, the opening minutes made Kerry out to be a traitor, and the way the issues were framed -- with only a few minutes devoted to President Bush's military service -- put the Kerry side squarely on the defensive."

But in the New York Times, Bill Carter and Scott Shane saw a "measured" presentation which gave equal time to both sides: "After stirring up protest over its plans to broadcast a documentary critical of Senator John Kerry, the Sinclair Broadcast Group presented a program last night that gave short shrift to that film and offered instead a measured analysis of the debate over Mr. Kerry's Vietnam War record." "The hour-long special program, produced by the news department at Sinclair, a major financial supporter of Republican candidates and which regularly features conservative commentary on its newscasts, included as many backers of Mr. Kerry as critics. "Sinclair's producers seemed to go out of their way to create a balanced political collage in the special, called 'A P.O.W. Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media.' "Only about four minutes of Carlton Sherwood's anti-Kerry film, 'Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal,' were included -- and virtually the same amount of time was devoted to an excerpt from 'Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry,' a film by George Butler that presents Mr. Kerry as a war hero."

In Sinclair's hometown Baltimore Sun, David Zurawik wondered what all the fuss was about: "The one thing that can be said with certainty about A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media, a special report from the Sinclair Broadcast Group, is that there was nothing in the program as aired last night worth all the pyrotechnics that proceeded it the last two weeks. "This was not a program worth risking stockholder earnings or firing a respected journalist, as Sinclair did this week. The show seemed more an attempt by Sinclair to dig its way out of controversy than an examination of the Vietnam War record and anti-war protests of Democrat John Kerry, as promised."

A couple of people who live in Sinclair markets promised to tape it for me and so I hope to be able to review it myself next week and see if it was more or less biased than the average CBS News campaign story.

# Monday: Battle of the morning shows. On ABC's Good Morning America: President George W. Bush and former President Bill Clinton. On NBC's Today: Senator John Kerry.

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